•D2320. Pair of Polychrome Cashmere Vases

Each with a molded X mark

Of flattened octagonal form and painted on the front and reverse with a long-tailed bird in flight near or perched on the branch of a tree peony above flowering plants and rockwork within a conformingly shaped panel punctuated at the top and bottom with a floral lappet, the ends with a blueground panel decorated with a floral vine interrupted with an oval panel of a crowing cock, and the canted sides patterned with iron-redtrellis diaperwork superimposed with green-centered blue blossoms and terminating in roundels of birds, the rim with an iron-red herringbone border, and the footrim with a Greek key band.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 27.9 cm. (11 in.)

PROVENANCE
The Müller Collection;
Sotheby’s, London, June 23, 1964, lot 24
Staal Antiquairs, Amsterdam, 1964 (according to family archive);
Dutch Private Collection, Amsterdam;
The Vecht Collection, Amsterdam;
The Collection of G. Ephis, France;

PROVENANCE+
Up to the ‘Dutch Private Collection, Amsterdam’ provenance of this entry has been registered by notarial deed with independent and secure registration agency Provenance+ Amsterdam.

NOTE
The color palette on this pair of vases was given the descriptive title ‘cashmere’ for its likeness in color, and exotic, dense motifs to the fine woolen shawls that were imported from India and worn by high- class European ladies. As can be seen on the present set, the earthenware of this category has a reeded surface with a color scheme of blue, red and green, sometimes expanded with yellow or manganese. Although the Delft pieces were named after the fashionable textiles, the Delft potters were in fact inspired by the Chinese famille verte porcelain wares of the Kangxi period (1662-1722), which arrived in Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. Delftware painters also looked beyond China for further inspiration in designing cashmere pieces.